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Archive for the ‘Space News’ Category

China’s space plane – ‘round and ‘round it goes – when and where it stops, nobody knows.

China’s unpiloted and reusable experimental spacecraft was sent up on Friday (Beijing time) and continues to circuit the globe.

China Aerospace Science and Technology (CAST) Corporation, the leading State-owned space conglomerate, said the robotic vehicle will stay in its orbit for a period to verify reusable technologies.

Then the spacecraft will fly back to Earth and auto-land at an unspecified, preset site.

CAST has not elaborated on details of the mission and the spacecraft. It has not published pictures of the space plane-boosted, Long March 2F liftoff, nor scenes inside the command and control hall.

Friday’s mission was the 344th launch of the Long March rocket fleet and the 14th of the Long March 2F. That launcher is primarily tasked with serving China’s crewed space program.

All of the Long March 2F’s previous flights involved space piloted missions; the rocket sent six crewed and five unpiloted spaceships into low-Earth orbit, as well as two space labs.

 

Sky-watching observers

Meanwhile, sky-watching observers are keeping an eye on the craft.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) ID for the craft is: 46389. The international code is: 2020-063A

Tracking information has the space plane pegged at a perigee (low point to Earth) of 338.2 kilometers with an apogee of 354 kilometers, with an inclination of 50.2 degrees.

One tool in use to help track the whereabouts of the Chinese space plane is: https://www.n2yo.com/

This Chinese craft is circling the Earth every 91.3 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has issued The Future of Space Tourism, taking a look at a variety of issues that will shape the promise of public space travel.

 

Diving into the history and development of the space tourism sector, the report spotlights new entrants, such as Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the high-altitude balloon concept offered by Space Perspective.

The CRS is a nonpartisan, shared staff to congressional committees and Members of Congress that reviews a host of topics.

Safety of launch vehicles

“At present, the U.S. government has no procedures for certifying the safety of launch vehicles for tourist passengers,” the CRS document explains. Flagged in the report is that launch providers must receive a license for their rockets from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), “but this licensing process addresses propulsion and trajectory aspects of spaceflight missions and public safety on the ground rather than passenger safety.”

For flights with passengers, the report notes, “FAA requires crew and pilots of commercial spaceflight vehicles to meet certain training and medical standards, but it has no standards applicable to passengers.”

Considerations for Congress

The CRS report offers a set of “considerations for Congress,” such as the Congress may want to consider whether the law restricting FAA’s authority to regulate the safety of commercial spacecraft with humans onboard “should be extended, lifted, or allowed to expire in phases.”

Congress has supported the development of voluntary safety standards by industry, interagency working groups, and the aerospace medical community, with the CRS report saying they may want to consider whether the federal government should adopt such standards as regulations.

The CRS report, written by Alyssa K. King, an analyst in transportation policy, also looks at medical concerns for spaceflight participants as well as how best to handle accident investigations.

To review the full report — The Future of Space Tourism – go to:

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46500

Researchers continue to plumb data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) that was carried onboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 mission.

As the first Indian lunar probe under the country’s Chandrayaan program, the orbiter was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in October 2008. The Moon-circling probe operated until August 2009.

M3 was a NASA-supported guest instrument on ISRO’s Moon remote sensing mission.

Nearside, farside facts

New analyses of the M3 data show that hematite, a ferric mineral, is present at high latitudes on the Moon, mostly associated with east- and equator-facing sides of topographic highs, and is more prevalent on the Moon’s nearside than the lunar farside.

Leading the research, published in Science Advances, is Shuai Li of the Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Evolution of Earth’s atmosphere

“Hematite (Fe2O3) is a common oxidization product on Earth, Mars, and some asteroids.

 

Although oxidizing processes have been speculated to operate on the lunar surface and form ferric iron–bearing minerals, unambiguous detections of ferric minerals forming under highly reducing conditions on the Moon have remained elusive,” the study team notes.

Oxygen delivered from Earth’s upper atmosphere could be the major oxidant that forms lunar hematite, the researchers point out.

“Hematite at craters of different ages may have preserved the oxygen isotopes of Earth’s atmosphere in the past billions of years. Future oxygen isotope measurements can test our hypothesis and may help reveal the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere,” the research paper adds. “Studying the oxygen isotopes of hematite at different age craters may help reveal the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere in the past billions of years.”

Wanted: ground truth

“We really need ground truth to verify these new observations,” says lunar resource expert, Clive Neal, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences.

“Shuai Li has once again presented intriguing results from orbital data that challenge one of the basic paradigms of our understanding of the Moon,” Neal told Inside Outer Space, “that it represents a reducing environment. The presence of hematite, if verified, will shift that paradigm in terms of space weathering processes.”

Here on Earth, Hematite is used for a number of purposes. For one, it is a very dense and inexpensive material that is effective at stopping x-rays. For that reason it is used for radiation shielding around medical and scientific equipment.

For more information, go to:

“Widespread hematite at high latitudes of the Moon,” by Shuai Li, Paul G. Lucey, Abigail A. Fraeman, R. Poppe, Vivian Z. Sun, Dana M. Hurley, and Peter H. Schultz, go to:

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/36/eaba1940

China launched an experimental reusable spacecraft Friday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

Boosting the craft spaceward was a Long March-2F carrier rocket.

It’s the first mission of a small re-usable space plane, possibly associated with China’s space station program and may be intended for long duration missions before return to Earth, posts Robert Christy of Zarya.info.

Chinese space watchers believe the non-piloted space plane is meant to mimic the U.S. Air Force X-37B space plane, now circuiting the Earth on its sixth mission and dubbed Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-6).

Shroud of mystery

Christy told Inside Outer Space that the booster’s launch time was two hours later than implied by an associated Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) filed by China, implying a glitch in the countdown.

It’s not been launched to match the U.S. military’s OTV-6. The inclination of the Chinese space plane is 50° – “so it misses being coplanar with OTV by a country mile,” Christy adds.

“Beware of launch vehicle photos,” Christy says. “I’ve seen two so far, but both show signs of editing in the shroud area. They may be based on Shenzhou launcher images modified with someone’s idea of what the shroud might look like.”

Speculation only, but Christy suspects China’s space plane is bigger than the Air Force’s OTV (could it have a crew cabin?) and might not have used a fully enclosed shroud at launch.

“That could explain why there’s no proper photos,” Christy points out. “I also get the impression that local Chinese public were warned off photographing and filming from outside the launch site – why do that if everything was under a standard cylindrical shroud?”

The craft rode atop the 14th mission of the Long March-2F carrier rocket – a booster only previously used for launches of Shenzhou piloted spacecraft and China’s Tiangong space lab, Christy adds.

Landing site in China

The Chinese space plane appears to be in a 332 x 348 kilometer orbit with a 50.20 degree inclination. 

“After a period of in-orbit operation,” reports Xinhua, the state-run news agency, “the spacecraft will return to the scheduled landing site in China. It will test reusable technologies during its flight, providing technological support for the peaceful use of space.”

 

Space plane ambitions

Similar to OTV-6, understanding what China’s space plane is intended to showcase is puzzling.

A recent two-piece blog post by Jean Deville at China Aerospace Blog on the evolution of Chinese space planes could help decipher the intent of China’s space plane ambitions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go to these postings by Deville at:

https://china-aerospace.blog/2020/05/05/chinese-spaceplanes-a-historical-perspective/?fbclid=IwAR2oc2zdEhcqC4G3meiP_DjabEB_aR9ED4-Kf–MeJfnaKV2Ib2BgaYiCgE

and

https://china-aerospace.blog/2020/05/11/chinas-spaceplane-projects-past-present-and-future/?fbclid=IwAR0_IT1IJnJ9R2IidQUNpBXo-Sz2O9U6WhPB1S98CYJR83OBwcgJrtV4IhI

Key Governance Issues in Space is a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) – a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges.

The report explores the global landscape of national space policies concerning space sustainability, rendezvous and proximity operations, and insurance requirements – elements that they say are “uneven and irregular.”

Solutions for space sustainability

“Without clear national regulations and policies, the challenge to find international consensus and define technical standards for key issues in space governance remains bleak,” the report explains.

“However, there are a few areas of consensus among nations, such as the need from the global space community for nations to support solutions for space sustainability.

Orbital debris

A concern expressed in the report, by several in the space community, is that real efforts to protect the space domain will not occur until another major debris-creating event occurs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The report, by Kaitlyn Johnson, an associate fellow and associate director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is available at:

https://aerospace.csis.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Johnson_GovernanceInSpace_WEB_FINAL-1.pdf

 

The term and concept of the “Overview Effect” were coined in 1987 by writer Frank White. He explored the theme in his seminal 1987 book The Overview Effect — Space Exploration and Human Evolution, describing it as the cognitive shift in awareness that results from the experience of viewing Earth from orbit or the Moon.

That said, how about tapping the inner workings of the Overview Effect to calm down and meditate here on Earth, through virtual reality?

Enter VR Overview Effect therapy.

Biofeedback

The VROE organization, based in London, England, is recreating aspects of the Overview Effect using VR, workshops, guided meditation and biofeedback to enhance a person’s wellbeing.

The intent is to bring the cognitive shift experienced by astronauts when Earth gazing to a wider audience. 

 

Therapeutic value

According to their website, VROE is a professional psychological service trained in various modalities and fields, offering a range of therapeutic virtual-reality (VR) interventions and workshops “centered around the Overview Effect to corporations, prisons, private hospitals/clinics, National Health Service (NHS) schools and charities.”

Annahita Nezami is the founder of VR-Overview-Effect, a counseling psychologist working in mental health.

Taking part in the Explore Mars virtual meeting this week, Nezami commented: “There are currently many alternative approaches to mental health treatment in clinical trials, psychedelics and VR included. We are excited too…but we need to get trials under way. The final pilot will be much more advanced and the actual programs will include biofeedback.”

The group is currently developing their first VR Overview Effect project with an early version to be available towards the end of 2020.

So if you’re a Covid shut-in, perhaps consider this off-planet experience in the comfort of your lock-down domicile.

For more information on VROE, go to:

https://www.vr-overview-effect.co.uk/

 

 

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now performing Sol 2872 tasks.

“Curiosity successfully drilled into the rock target named “Mary Anning 3,” producing a beautiful new drill hole and associated drill tailings,” reports Mark Salvatore, a planetary geologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

 

 

 

Over the next several days, controllers will command the rover to deliver the drilled sample powder into the different instruments onboard the rover for additional analyses.

Mineralogical setting

“The rover will also continue its investigation of nearby rock targets that have shown interesting chemical variability over relatively short distances,” Salvatore adds.

Chemical variability within rock targets has been previously identified in “Gale Crater” by Curiosity, Salvatore points out, and can indicate differing amounts of water or oxygen availability, for example, during the formation or subsequent modification of the geologic materials.

 

 

“We’re hoping that the Mary Anning 3 sample and subsequent analyses will help us to understand the mineralogical setting of these observed variations,” Salvatore concludes.

Hawaiian basalt is being converted into “tiles” to show the way to construct launch pads on the Moon or Mars.

The tiles are being fabricated to handle dynamic rocket blasts from arriving and departing spacecraft.

The work is being championed by the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration (PISCES), a state-funded, Hawaii aerospace agency.

Tile testing

PISCES has recently completed a large batch of sintered basalt tiles for testing by NASA’s Swamp Works at Kennedy Space Center. Thirty tiles will be assessed as launch and landing pad material. Testing of the tiles also involves Masten Space Systems in Mojave, California.

Earlier this year, Masten tested a 12” x 12” x 1” tile made by PISCES, subjecting it to a two-second rocket burst fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid methane. The results of the test caught the interest of Swamp Works, who requested the latest batch of tiles. The next test will involve three one-square-meter launch pads (each containing nine tiles).

Similarities in composition

“What we have been working on here at PISCES is looking for ways in which we could convert Hawaiian basalt into a material suitable for construction. The interest in this is due to the similarities in composition between the Hawaiian basalt and lunar regolith,” explains Rodrigo Romo, Program Director of PISCES in Hilo, Hawaii.

“If we can find ways in which to utilize basalt here and convert it into a material that is suitable for construction, or construction grade, then we are one step closer in figuring out how to do that on the Moon or Mars as well,” Romo told Inside Outer Space.

Romo adds that the interest in landing pads is because they are amongst the first pieces of infrastructure that will have to be built at any site that is intended to be a recurring landing and liftoff site.

PISCES progress

PISCES began researching basalt-based launch pad tiles in 2014

Between the fall of 2015 and 2016, PISCES created a series of interlocking basalt tiles for the Additive Construction with Mobile Emplacement (ACME) project, which staged a robotically built, full-scale launch pad. The tiles were designed at NASA and sintered by PISCES using Hawaiʻi basalt. After being placed by a planetary rover with a robotic arm provided by Honeybee Robotics, the tiles underwent a static fire test to assess their durability under the heat and pressure of a rocket blast.

Future work

Future work, Romo says, will include evaluating the sintering process under vacuum and low temperature conditions like those found on the Moon. “We are also exploring the use of binders that would allow us to do additive manufacturing and/or sintering at lower temperatures.”

PISCES will also determine how to continue developing sintered basalt materials for commercial applications on Earth and infrastructure to augment and further space settlement plans.

For more information on PISCES and its pioneering work, go to:

http://pacificspacecenter.com/

The hunt for technosignatures from extraterrestrials is getting an overhaul of existing data.

To date, no confirmed technosignatures have been detected, but as more and more comprehensive searches are carried out, astronomers can place tighter and tighter limits on how many stars in our neighborhood might be home to powerful radio transmitters – and the minds that constructed them.

Today, Breakthrough Listen and the University of Manchester announced a reanalysis of Breakthrough Listen data to include other stellar objects in the field that promises to produce the most comprehensive SETI search to date.

Within the beam

“We now know that fewer than one in 1,600 stars closer than about 330 light years host transmitters just a few times more powerful than the strongest radar we have here on Earth. Inhabited worlds with much more powerful transmitters than we can currently produce must be rarer still,” says Masters student Bart Wlodarczyk-Sroka at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom.

When Breakthrough Listen searches for technosignatures coming from a nearby star, it is also sensitive to more powerful potential technosignatures from other stars within the telescope’s beam.

 

 

 

 

 

What’s new is determining new, more stringent limits on the prevalence of technosignatures, without the need to gather any new telescope data.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

For more information on this new effort, go to the paper, “Extending the Breakthrough Listen nearby star survey to other stellar objects in the field,” at:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2006.09756.pdf

Supplementary material, including the catalog of Gaia stars used in the analysis, along with an accompanying video and artwork, are available at:

http://seti.berkeley.edu/deeper

In the U.S. national security space policy debate, there has been a dichotomy between a “sanctuary” space policy and a “contested” space policy. Policymakers have chosen between preventing conflict in space by delegitimizing attacks on satellites on the one hand and preparing for conflict through warfighting doctrines and weapons systems on the other.

A new report — The Rise and Fall of Space Sanctuary in U.S. Policy – is availabe from The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy.

More continuity than change

“The history of U.S. space policy includes more continuity than it does change, especially over the last four decades. Sanctuary policy only experienced 20 years of prominence at the outset of the Space Age,” explains Robin Dickey, a space policy and strategy analyst at the Center focused on national security space (now retired).

Since 1975 the sanctuary-versus-contested debate within the U.S. government has ended in victory for the contested camp, Dickey points out. Different administrations may have pursued contested space to different degrees, and some tried to resurrect specific elements of sanctuary policy, she explains, but each administration since U.S. President, Gerald Ford, has eventually accepted the need to develop passive and active capabilities to defend U.S. assets in space and to deny or defeat hostile activities in a bid to improve the survivability of the U.S. space architecture.

New insight

“This analysis provides new insight into what has changed and what remains the same in U.S. policy and activities in the space domain,” Dickey writes. “The last 10 years have witnessed unprecedented changes in the space domain. Old competitors have developed new capabilities, new competitors have risen, and the commercial space industry has been transformed by new companies, new technologies, and new ways of conceiving behavior in space.”

Dickey’s report concludes that we must recognize which debates we have had before, what decisions we have made to lead up to this point, “and what patterns and predispositions we have followed in our past policies before we can decide how to move forward.

For this report — The Rise and Fall of Space Sanctuary in U.S. Policy – go to:

https://aerospace.org/sites/default/files/2020-09/Dickey_SpaceSanctuary_20200901.pdf